In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick introduces the "Ultimate Task Audit," a systematic quarterly (or periodic) exercise designed to align a professional’s workload with their strengths and passions. He begins by describing the common problem of overloaded calendars filled with tasks that feel unfulfilling and ineffective. He then walks listeners through a step‑by‑step process: (1) compile a comprehensive list of all work‑related tasks; (2) label each task with a "C" for capable (moderate proficiency), an "E" for exceptional (top‑tier performance), and a "P" for passionate (tasks that energize you). After labeling, he instructs listeners to (3) circle tasks that are both Exceptional and Passionate (EP) and (4) check tasks that are Capable and Passionate (CP). For CP tasks, he asks whether the individual is willing to invest effort to become Exceptional; if so, they are also circled. He then advises how to act on the results: keep EP tasks, commit to improving CP tasks, and offload or delegate tasks that are merely Capable (C) or Capable‑Passionate but not worth elevating. He also notes that tasks that are Exceptional but not Passionate (E without P) should be retained until someone else can take them over. Finally, Brian emphasizes the importance of repeating the audit twice a year, possibly with teammates, to swap tasks based on differing strengths and passions, thereby increasing overall effectiveness and satisfaction.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Have you ever looked at your schedule and thought to yourself, how in the world am I going to get all of this done? How did I end up having so many things on my calendar? When did this stuff get booked? What was I thinking? And a lot of what's on my calendar, I'm not even super excited to do. Maybe this is just me. Maybe I'm the only one that's fallen victim to this. And of course, I'm kidding around because I think most all of us have had this experience. Well, I recognized that this was my life. At some point, a handful of years ago, where I felt like I was efficient, I was effective, because I was stacking so many things on my calendar. But at the end of the week, I would not feel accomplished. And why was that? No surprise. While I was doing a lot of stuff, I wasn't doing the most important things. And even worse, I wasn't doing the things that I was actually excited about doing. So after studying and, and, and reading and looking at what others were doing, I devised what I call the Ultimate Task Audit. And I'd like to share this task audit with you. I think it's something no matter your role in the business world, I think it, it's something you can use. It's something you should use probably quarterly or at least periodically throughout the year to assess if what you're in fact doing, where you're spending your time, is aligned with what you're really great at, as well as what you're passionate about. So the ultimate task audit, step 1, here's what I want you to do. I want you to make a list of all the things you're doing right now while working in your business. Go through it, like just get out a piece of paper, or maybe you want to use an Excel sheet or whatever it may be, and start writing down all of the things that you do while working in your business. Now, For me, you know, I make— I like to make a list. What's up? What's top of mind? And then I'm going to go to my Remarkable, which is where I write down my schedule, like my task list, like my to-dos, I'm sorry, and where I take notes and where I journal a little bit. I'm going to go there and I'm going to look at that. Then I'm going to go take a look at my calendar. Then I'm going to scroll through some of my texts. And I'm also going to look at some of my emails. And in doing that, I'm going to fully compile— I'm going to have a pretty complete list, right? So I'm going to make a list of all the things I'm doing while working in my business. Next, I want you to, for all tasks, place a C, the letter C, next to all the tasks that you are in fact capable of performing. But you're not extraordinary at performing them. So say on a scale of 1 to 10, these are the items that you'd rank yourself, say a 5 to an 8. So you're capable, but you're not exceptional. So for all of those things on that, on that task list that you just put together, I want you to put a C next to those things that you're ranked, say a 5 to an 8 with respect to your performance. Now, after you do that, I want you to go back through that list. I want you to put an E, the letter E, next to all of the tasks that you are in fact exceptional at performing. These are your 9s and your 10s. So again, when we look at your task list, what I should see are a bunch of things that you are doing on a daily or weekly basis that have a C next to them for capable. And I should see a handful of tasks that you do on a daily or weekly basis that have an E next to them for exceptional. And then maybe I see a handful of tasks that don't have a C or an E, which would in fact imply that you're not really capable of doing them, even though you're doing it. Probably not gonna have many, if any of those, but they may show up. Now, after you've completed step 2, I want you to go back through this task list. And I want you to place a P next to all tasks that you are passionate about completing. These are the tasks that give you energy and bring you great satisfaction. So remember, you've got this list. It's got a bunch of C's and E's on it right now. I want you to go back through the list. And even if it has a C or E, I want you to put a P next to all of those tasks that you are passionate about completing. These are the ones that give you energy, the ones that give you great satisfaction. So now you should have a list that has E's and C's and P's by it. Step 4, I want you to circle all of the tasks that are labeled with both the letter E for exceptional and the letter P for passionate. Take a moment and circle all the tasks that have both the E and the P. These tasks, probably goes without saying, these are the ones you're excellent at. These are the ones that bring you joy. You should probably keep these tasks on your plate. Now I want you to put a checkmark by all of those tasks that have both a C for capable and the letter P for passionate. So you're capable and you're passionate. Put a check mark by all of these. Now I want you to evaluate each of these tasks that have this C and this P, and I want to ask you a question. Are you willing to do what it takes to become exceptional, to be a 9 or a 10? So if you're currently capable, are you willing to do what it takes to become excellent, to become exceptional? If the answer is yes, then like the other E's and P's, I want you to circle the task. If not though, do not circle it. So now on your list, you should have a number of circled items that either have an EP or a CP next to them. The CP though is the one that you're committed to becoming excellent at. So going from a C, a capable, to an excellent. So you should have a list of things circled. Now let's summarize what we have here. Okay. This is the conclusion I want you to come to. I want you to spend time in your EPs, your exceptional and passionate. I want you to consider spending time in your CPs if you're willing to do what it takes to get better at that task. And the task being completed by you, by, by the way, is in fact valuable to the organization. In addition, I want you to offload your Cs and your CPs. I want you to offload these things. I want you to offload them by either giving them to someone else in your world that can become an EP in that task, or get rid of them altogether because they're unnecessary, or hiring somebody else for it. Figure out a way to leverage these things off of your plate, because if you're, if you're capable but you're not passionate about doing it, your odds are you're going to burn out. And you're not going to do a great job. If you're capable and passionate, but you're unwilling to become exceptional, that's actually the task that's going to bog you down or stand in your way. So in order to accelerate your progress, accept the fact that you're never going to become exceptional at it and hand it off. Now, lastly, you are likely to have ease on your, on your list. Do not have a corresponding P. So there's a bunch of things on your plate right now that you're exceptional at, but you're not really passionate about doing them. These things, these E's that are on your plate with no corresponding P, you got to keep them because you're excellent at doing them. And until someone comes around and takes them away from you, that's just going to be part of your job. Now you should have your head on a swivel looking to see who could take it. But you're exceptional. You're great at doing that. It's just part of the job. You're going to have to deal with it until someone takes it away. So what did we just accomplish here? Remember, I started the conversation today by asking you if your calendar sometimes looks like mine. It's filled with a bunch of things that take up a lot of time, but maybe even make you a bit productive, but you're not accomplishing, you know, the most important tasks. And what I found is that if we're not exceptional at something and we're not passionate about it, we don't give it the same degree of energy or focus. And our, our schedule ends up getting filled with all different sorts of tasks that we may just be capable at, or that we may not even be passionate around. So the objective here is to focus on the things that you're great at and that you love doing, and to figure out a path to offloading those things you're just capable at or just not passionate about. Do this assessment and tell me what you come up with. I would encourage you again to do it probably twice a year and do it with your teammates. It's kind of funny, but you might find yourself exchanging different tasks because what I'm capable at, you may be exceptional at, or what I don't like doing, you may be very passionate around. Give it a try. See how it works out for you. The ultimate task audit. Thank you all. Thank you all for plugging in here today at the No Days Off Podcast. As you know, we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's all get after it.
